so in july of this year, i and a tripartisan group of 12 other senators, including senator mark udall, our colleague from utah 12340senator mike lee, senator durbin, i'm pleased to be joined by senator merkley, who has been vital in this coalition, this pry partisatry partisan coalitit th--with the signer of the lett, senator paul of kentucky, who has also been an outspoken advocate of striking a better balance between privacy and liberty was a sign he, senator conges, senator begich, senator tester, senator san detection senator tom udall, senator cantwell -- all of us joininged together in writing another letter to the director of national intelligence asking additional questions about the impact of this law on americans' prief six we asked the director if he could give us, mr. president, even a rough estimate, just a rough estimate. in other words, mr. president, there's been discussion both in the press and in the intelligence community, well, this group of senators is asking for something impossible, this group of senators is asking for an exact count of how many americans are be